Ram Truck Farmer' Super Bowl commercial inspires photo essay

The year 2013 could very well be remembered as belonging to the farmer.

At least, that’s what’s immortalized in a new photographic essay, “The Farmer in All of Us,” a follow-up to a 2-minute Super Bowl spot that created a stir and broke away from the normal slew of comedy-oriented commercials.

The Ram Truck brand launched the new photography book in conjunction with National Geographic as a follow-up to its “Farmer” Super Bowl commercial, which was inspired by Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” essay. The book builds upon the video’s imagery, creating a visual essay of more than 240 photos with anecdotes from the 10 photographers who contributed their work to the production of the TV spot.

Chrysler kicked off production of the book shortly after airing the Super Bowl spot in an effort to capitalize on the commercial’s success and give people an opportunity to see all that had gone into its production that had previously been unseen.

“As part of a multi-channel campaign we wanted to find a way to leverage some of the beauty of the photos that were captured when we were supporting the Super Bowl commercial,” said Marissa Hunter, head of advertising for the Ram Truck brand and global advertising director for Chrysler, LLC. “The truth is, we shot thousands of pictures and when we started to go through all of the material, we saw dozens and dozens of photos that were too good to be left in a box.”

Ten photographers were given the task of traveling America’s heartland, capturing the American farmer and creating a backdrop for a 2-minute tribute commercial during Super Bowl XLVII.

“It’s a whole diverse representation of this group of people so we’re really excited about the book,” Hunter said. “It was just an opportunity to share more of the images that we just scratched the surface on with the commercial.

This project ties in with the Ram Truck brand, popular with farmers across the nation,” Hunter said.

“Many of our Ram truck owners are farmers or live in rural farming communities. They work and live in the heartland of America; they provide the vital resources that we need to live in our nation and we wanted to take a special opportunity to pay tribute to them on the largest media stage that occurs in any given calendar year.”

But the brand’s affiliation with the FFA reaches much farther back — 55 years of a partnership that sees the funding of approximately 600 local and state level scholarships each year, Hunter said.

“The core of the affiliation with the FFA for us is to give students scholarship money that they need to achieve their educational goals,” she said.

And it’s for a cause: With the initiative, Ram promised to donate up to $1 million to the FFA if the TV spot received 10 million views on the brand’s website. In less than a week, the brand reached and surpassed that milestone; the $1 million check was presented to the FFA at its annual convention on Oct. 30.

The company’s mission when it comes to the book is no different. Every book purchase backs a minimum $25,000 donation by the Ram Truck brand to the National FFA Organization’s “Give the Gift of Blue” program, which donates the iconic blue corduroy FFA jackets to members whose families are unable to afford the expense.

“It is so exciting to see a collection of these stunning images together in one book,” said Clay Sapp, president of the National FFA Organization, in a press release. “‘The Farmer in All of Us’ truly represents the soul of the American farmer. We are grateful to Ram for supporting the ‘Give the Gift of Blue’ program and helping ensure each member of the FFA has the ability to own their own blue jacket.”

Riding the wave of the commercial’s success in February, the Ram Truck brand labeled 2013 the “Year of the Farmer” as part of an initiative to bring national attention to the American farmer and the occupation’s significance to the American way of life.

It’s a success that Hunter and her colleagues didn’t anticipate.

“I think we felt that we had something special on our hands which is why we took the risk of executing the commercial in the Super Bowl,” she said. “The creative nature is so much different. We felt there was something very special about it.”